In the days leading up to the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, a disaster that killed 11 men and resulted in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, conservative media figures have complained about federal oversight of drilling and have called for a swift increase in domestic oil production. This comes as news reports note that Congress has yet to enact reforms recommended by the National Oil Spill Commission, that the agency tasked with minimizing risks from offshore drilling lacks the resources to do so effectively, and that a design flaw in the blowout preventers has not been fixed.

In an April 19 editorial, The Washington Times wrote: "In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, nothing short of a rapid reversal of White House efforts to bottle up American's energy resources can stave off long-term damage to the nation's economic future. The message to the president: Drill, Barry, drill."

In fact, as Media Matters has repeatedlynoted, experts agree that it's "not credible" to blame President Obama for the gas price spike and have said that increased drilling would have no immediate impact on gas prices.

From The Washington Times:

Today, on the one-year anniversary, Americans don't have to travel to the Gulf to witness the lingering effect of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It's right there in the numbers on their gas receipts every time they fill up at the pump. As hurtful as the disaster has been to the economic fortunes of the Gulf region, the impact of the Obama administration's response to the spill has been far worse on the nation's economy.

On April 20, 2010, the day of the tragic oil-rig blowout that killed 11 workers, the average price for gas nationwide was $2.87 a gallon. Today, it's nearly a dollar higher. Residents of California, Connecticut, New York, Illinois, Hawaii and Alaska already have seen gasoline crack the $4 mark. If the price at the pump holds to its current trajectory, by Memorial Day, it will surpass the all-time nationwide high of $4.11 set in July 2008. Beyond that, the summer driving season could make $5 gas a nightmarish reality.

[...]

In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, nothing short of a rapid reversal of White House efforts to bottle up American's energy resources can stave off long-term damage to the nation's economic future. The message to the president: Drill, Barry, drill.

Eric Bolling appeared on Fox News today to express outrage about a recently approved Export-Import Bank loan for a refinery upgrade project in Colombia. Bolling stated: "This is absolutely crazy and no one, no one in the administration was going to tell us about it. I happened to be digging through the Export-Import Bank loan documents and found it."

Actually, the Export-Import Bank put out a press release about the loan on April 7, which is a weird way of keeping something secret.

The Ex-Im Bank doesn't use taxpayer dollars, and the point of the loan is to "support the purchases of equipment and services from over 150 large and small U.S. engineering/design, equipment supply, contracting and process license firms." So why is Bolling upset? Well, he sees this as another opportunity to attack Obama's energy policies, despite the fact that Obama does not control the decisions of the Export-Import bank, an independent agency.

When Fox's Eric Bolling finds a talking point he likes, he just won't let it go, especially when it comes to providing viewers with misleading and outright false information as part of his push for increasing domestic oil production.

On Fox News' America Live yesterday, Bolling sat down with host Martha MacCallum and Reuters' David Sheppard to discuss GOP proposals to speed up offshore drilling. When Sheppard rebuffed the notion that increased production of oil in the United States would lower gasoline prices, Bolling doubled down on his tired talking points, repeating the claim - which energy experts have deemed "nonsense" - that oil prices dropped "from $147 to $33 a barrel in six months" in 2008 because President Bush announced the removal of the presidential moratorium on offshore drilling.

Bolling went on to dismiss the effect of speculation on oil prices, claiming that "There are economic reasons for oil to go up or down. If you take away that economic reason, if you add supply to the market it can't rally. You can't blame speculators and you certainly can't blame any futures traders. It really -- you just need more oil." However, as Sheppard reported for Reuters, an analysis by Goldman Sachs suggests "speculators are boosting crude prices as much as $27 a barrel":

In an April 4 Washington Timescolumn, Ted Nugent wrote that "[e]mbracing so-called green energy is an energy death sentence for America" and that "[w]hat we need to do is purge ourselves of Mideast oil that is controlled by robe-wearing, voodoo-entranced OPEC mobsters." Nugent concluded: "Just as our defiant forefathers poured English tea into the Boston Harbor, we should tell the current ruling class of bureaucrats they can stick their curly light bulbs where the sun doesn't shine. I got your green energy right here."

From Nugent's column:

The anti-American green goony squad squawks endlessly about the need to ween ourselves from oil after last year's spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

[...]

Green energy is energy-less. Embracing so-called green energy is an energy death sentence for America.

Amazingly, a component of this administration's energy policy is to ban Thomas Edison's light bulb and force Americans to use "environmentally friendly" compact fluorescent light bulbs by 2014, all of which are made by communist China and pose serious health and environmental threats due to their mercury content.

[...]

America has enough oil and natural gas right off our coasts to power America for at least a couple of generations. Banning the extraction of this energy condemns us to continued slavery to OPEC.

We don't need to ween ourselves off oil. What we need to do is purge ourselves of Mideast oil that is controlled by robe-wearing, voodoo-entranced OPEC mobsters.

Drill here and drill now and eliminate the OPEC mob.

[...]

The question we need to ask ourselves is this: Are we creative, bold entrepreneurs who can solve our own problems with our own resources and solutions or have we turned into a pack of whimpering, dependent punk slaves?

Just as our defiant forefathers poured English tea into the Boston Harbor, we should tell the current ruling class of bureaucrats they can stick their curly light bulbs where the sun doesn't shine. I got your green energy right here.

The latest issue of Newsweek claims that "a new study suggests" offshore wind farms cause whales to beach themselves. In fact, the authors of the study said their research did not establish such a link, and the UK newspaper that reported the claim pulled the story from its website and issued a correction.

Right-wing media have predictably blamed a recent rise in gas prices on President Obama's energy policies and have called for more offshore drilling, claiming he has allowed America to remain "increasingly dependent" on oil imports from "unstable parts of the world." However, experts agree that it's "not credible" to blame Obama for the gas price spike, offshore drilling would not substantially decrease prices, and U.S. domestic oil production has in fact increased under Obama.

The New York Times was forced to issue two corrections after relying on Capitol Hill anonymous sourcing for its flawed report on emails from former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The Clinton debacle is the latest example of why the media should be careful when relying on leaks from partisan congressional sources -- this is far from the first time journalists who did have been burned.

Several Fox News figures are attempting to shift partial blame onto Samuel DuBose for his own death at the hands of a Cincinnati police officer during a traffic stop, arguing DuBose should have cooperated with the officer's instructions if he wanted to avoid "danger."

Iowa radio host Steve Deace is frequently interviewed as a political analyst by mainstream media outlets like NPR, MSNBC, and The Hill when they need an insider's perspective on the GOP primary and Iowa political landscape. However, these outlets may not all be aware that Deace gained his insider status in conservative circles by broadcasting full-throated endorsements of extreme right-wing positions on his radio show and writing online columns filled with intolerant views that he never reveals during main stream media appearances.